Differentiation for Equity

Dosch and Zidon (2014) highlight the negative impact of traditional pedagogical approaches on student learning by examining the power of practices and rhetoric that blame students for academic failure and ultimately reproduce traditional power structures in higher education. As diversity in higher education increases, the use of traditional teaching approaches that encompass one-size-fits-all, teacher-centered approaches must be reconsidered to ensure equity-based practices to support differentiation in the classroom. When considering differentiation as a means to disrupt traditional forms of pedagogy in higher education, however, research is often limited in its ability to provide practical strategies that are relative to the college setting (Weingarten & Deller, 2011). As such, this article provides a review of differentiation in education and outlines applied examples of differentiation that can be used in college classrooms to promote equity

Chronic urticaria: What diagnostic evaluation is best?

A detailed history and 6-week trial of an H1 antihistamine are the best diagnostic evaluations for chronic urticaria. More extensive diagnostic work-up adds little, unless the patient's history specifically indicates a need for further evaluation (strength of recommendation: B, inconsistent or limited-quality evidence)

Copper speciation in coastal rain and estuarine water

Copper exists in two oxidation states in natural waters, Cu(I) and Cu(II). Determining the speciation of copper rather than its total concentration is essential in order to assess the atmospheric reactivity and environmental fate of copper in the troposphere. The concentration and speciation of copper was determined in rainwater samples from Wilmington, North Carolina, from August 25, 2000 to September 24, 2002. Volume weighted average concentrations of Cutotal, Cu(I), and Cu(II) in rainwater were 5.3 nM, 1.4 nM, and 3.2 nM, respectively. An undetermined ligand may be stabilizing Cu(I) in authentic rainwater. Rainwater Cu(II) concentrations were significantly higher in the summer, whereas Cu(I) concentrations were significantly higher in the winter. The calculated atmospheric flux of copper, 504 µg m-2 yr-1, is in good agreement with the calculated copper flux at Florianopolis, Brazil and two Maryland Chesapeake Bay sites. Copper(I) and Cu(II) concentrations were not correlated with each other and Cu(II) concentrations did not correlate with any other rainwater analyte. Significant positive correlations were found between Cu(I) and DOC, SO42-, NO3-, and Fetotal. All copper species (Cu(I), Cu(II), Cutotal, Cuparticulate) showed an inverse correlation with rainfall amount. All copper species increased in concentration with decreasing rainwater pH. All copper species were higher for storms of continental origin versus storms of coastal origin. No diurnal variations were seen with Cu(I). However, Cu(II) concentrations had a maximum between 12 pm – 6 pm. It is possible that Fe oxyhydroxides with adsorbed Cu(II) undergo reactions that release Cu(II) in the presence of sunlight. Contamination by trace metals, such as copper, contributes to the degradation of estuarine systems in many areas, including North Carolina. Speciation, or the distribution of copper among its various chemical forms, controls the reactivity, toxicity, and bioavailability of the metal in estuarine sediments and water, as in rain. Estuarine water samples were collected and analyzed for Cu(I) during April, July, and November of 2001 and March 2002. The percentage of total copper as Cu(I) varied from 1.9% - 4.1% with an overall average of 3.4%. No flux of Cu(I) was observed into or out of the water overlying the estuarine sediments in controlled laboratory experiments. Almost the same amount of copper that enters the Cape Fear River estuary from atmospheric deposition (8.7 X 102 moles Cu/year) fluxes into the sediments (5.8 X 102 moles Cu/year)

Acute pulmonary embolectomy

Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is a common condition frequently associated with a high mortality worldwide. It can be classified into non-massive, sub-massive and massive, based on the degree of haemodynamic compromise. Surgical pulmonary embolectomy, despite having been in existence for over 100 years, is generally regarded as an option of last resort, with expectedly high mortality rates. Recent advances in diagnosis and recognition of key qualitative predictors of mortality, such as right ventricular stress on echocardiography, have enabled the re-exploration of surgical pulmonary embolectomy for use in patients prior to the development of significant circulatory collapse, with promising results. We aim to review the literature and discuss the indications, perioperative workup and outcomes of surgical pulmonary embolectomy in the management of acute P

The state of workplace union reps organisation in Britain today

This article provides a brief evaluation of the state of workplace union reps’ organization in Britain as we approach the second decade of the 2000s. It documents the severe weakening of workplace union organization over the last 25 years, which is reflected in the declining number of reps, reduced bargaining power and the problem of bureaucratization. But it also provides evidence of the continuing resilience, and even combativity in certain areas of employment, of workplace union reps organization, and considers the future potential for a revival of fortunes

Q-Strategy: A Bidding Strategy for Market-Based Allocation of Grid Services

The application of autonomous agents by the provisioning and usage of computational services is an attractive research field. Various methods and technologies in the area of artificial intelligence, statistics and economics are playing together to achieve i) autonomic service provisioning and usage of Grid services, to invent ii) competitive bidding strategies for widely used market mechanisms and to iii) incentivize consumers and providers to use such market-based systems. The contributions of the paper are threefold. First, we present a bidding agent framework for implementing artificial bidding agents, supporting consumers and providers in technical and economic preference elicitation as well as automated bid generation by the requesting and provisioning of Grid services. Secondly, we introduce a novel consumer-side bidding strategy, which enables a goal-oriented and strategic behavior by the generation and submission of consumer service requests and selection of provider offers. Thirdly, we evaluate and compare the Q-strategy, implemented within the presented framework, against the Truth-Telling bidding strategy in three mechanisms – a centralized CDA, a decentralized on-line machine scheduling and a FIFO-scheduling mechanisms

The Strategic Exploitation of Limited Information and Opportunity in Networked Markets

This paper studies the effect of constraining interactions within a market. A model is analysed in which boundedly rational agents trade with and gather information from their neighbours within a trade network. It is demonstrated that a trader’s ability to profit and to identify the equilibrium price is positively correlated with its degree of connectivity within the market. Where traders differ in their number of potential trading partners, well-connected traders are found to benefit from aggressive trading behaviour.Where information propagation is constrained by the topology of the trade network, connectedness affects the nature of the strategies employed